Ah sad day. Other wise I am surprised how many people are comparing it to borderlands from the original trailer, yes it has guns and four player coop but they don't even say was first person in it, seemed to imply little to no rpg elements both are animated but with very different art styles, and both are comedy but borderlands is dark armpit of humanity humor and overstrike was over the top kids show. guess it goes to show just how little verity we have if these two were compared. Oh well rest in peace overstrike the Frankenstein that is fuse still looks fun though.

I see this as kinda Ironic....in a way. See Valve turned team fortress 2 from a generic military FPS to a charismatic, cartoonish FPS. While EA turned a charismatic, cartoonish TPS to a generic military TPS.

So yeah, no one EVER makes money off a charismatic cartoonish shooter... -_-

T^T

I weep for what could of been. Thank you Overstrike for at least existing for a short period of time in this world of generic military shooters. May you rest in peace.

Both the before and after have their seperate appeal, and yet the former is the one I would have really hurried to shell out for. It almost feels like the direction change TF2 went through mid development - only in reverse?

...Two of the biggest games out there, in that they keep making money, are World of Warcraft and TF2. Both of them have a cartoony aesthetic. Why do people keep insisting on this gritty bullshit?

I'm sure the game will be fun and all, the studio has a great track record, but what caught my attention was the unique look. I was looking forward to a shooter unafraid to be fun... Which this still could be, but it feels like they've taken a step back.

Blueruler182:...Two of the biggest games out there, in that they keep making money, are World of Warcraft and TF2. Both of them have a cartoony aesthetic. Why do people keep insisting on this gritty bullshit?

I'm sure the game will be fun and all, the studio has a great track record, but what caught my attention was the unique look. I was looking forward to a shooter unafraid to be fun... Which this still could be, but it feels like they've taken a step back.

Because they still think COD sells for gritty alone. Imo, a good amount of people I know play COD for the gameplay, not the asthetics. But developers think that it's the asthetics and so they keep making games bleaker and more brown. D:

Wow I had actually forgotten all about this game. Shame they seem to have decided to go the more "gritty" route since I enjoy games like TF2 and Evil Genius that have a lot of personality and humor to keep things fresh. Guess we'll just have to see how it turns out.

[Insert Name Here]:That E3 2011 trailer was really awesome and fun and got me excited for the game. Now, they took pretty much everything that made that interesting, shifted the tone, and I'm not looking forward to this as much. It's Insomniac, which means the gameplay will still probably be great, but they've neutered the charm and enthusiasm out of it.

yeah the gameplay will still probably be good, but the game seemed so much more... Fun with the original teaser.

the fact that that game i first saw will now never be made legitimately brought a tear to my eye. it was one of the E3 highlights, and made me instantly want it. the aesthetic change and tone change just makes me sad.

WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY DO THIS?

sorry. had to say it. i really dont understand why they keep doing that when every time they do, people bitch and moan and they lose sales.

way to ruin my day asshats. (and this is all coming from someone who up until now has been impartial towards EA because the games i got from them were still good, and the IP didn't experience huge changes, at lest not in the installments i played)

Meh, this is EA we're talking about. If it doesn't have some sort of gritty, muscle-loving, grunting attitude designed to cater to the dudebro collective, it can't possibly sell. The only good money for EA is hot, disposable Dudebro Money.

The only reason they haven't Grimdark'd The Sims is because this would be such an egregious case of design alteration that the franchise's fans would scream in sheer outrage. The fans of a team-based FPS' initial design, though? Not so much. Upper Management figures we'll all shut up, pony up the cash and like it anyway.

What's even their excuse for this change? Everyone was praising the light hearted tone and quirky characters. Were they even paying attention?

No, clearly not.

EAs stock wouldn't be tanking if they payed attention to their customers moreso than their idea of what will make investors happy... Because all these other titles are gritty and sell, this must mean that nobody likes quirky likeable characters anymore, so dumb it down...

I see them faltering and losing a ton more ground in the industry real soon, I just hope they learn from it when it happens, rather than carrying on with all these policies that alienate huge chunks of their customer base, and damaget heir reputation with customers on a global scale.

Yeah, after skimming through the forum posts that seems to be the general consensus. I would agree. I genuinely liked the trailer for Overstrike. It reminded me of The Incredibles, and I loved that about it.

I honestly feel like I've had more than enough of my fair share of gritty, realistic, third-person shooters, relying on single Macguffin to try and differentiate itself. It just isn't enough to have one tiny little thing, that might turn out to be a gimmick depending on implementation, to try and separate yourself from the tried and tired formula that everyone knows pretty well at this point.

Why the hell. Ratchet and Clank was so good, now they want to make it more like most other shooters. Last i checked (hopefully) interesting new games made more money than stupid COD wannabes. Nothing will topple COD no matter how much you try to imitate it.

And always remember grit will always sell more than humor and charm, just ask MGS, WOW, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Obviously EA is such a genious, if only they were smart enough to take the humor out of Mass Effect 3 the one thing people complain about in the damn thing.

[Insert Name Here]:That E3 2011 trailer was really awesome and fun and got me excited for the game. Now, they took pretty much everything that made that interesting, shifted the tone, and I'm not looking forward to this as much. It's Insomniac, which means the gameplay will still probably be great, but they've neutered the charm and enthusiasm out of it.

yeah the gameplay will still probably be good, but the game seemed so much more... Fun with the original teaser.

the fact that that game i first saw will now never be made legitimately brought a tear to my eye. it was one of the E3 highlights, and made me instantly want it. the aesthetic change and tone change just makes me sad.

WHY THE FUCK WOULD THEY DO THIS?

sorry. had to say it. i really dont understand why they keep doing that when every time they do, people bitch and moan and they lose sales.

way to ruin my day asshats. (and this is all coming from someone who up until now has been impartial towards EA because the games i got from them were still good, and the IP didn't experience huge changes, at lest not in the installments i played)

To who or what ever pushed for this change of art style thanks! THANKS A LOT!!!! (Sarcasm)

I think I was buying to many games and now I can scratch one off the "Prospective buy list" and place it in "I will never buy this, ever.(or pirate it to spite them or something)" Cabinet.

Looks like the Ransom Note(*1) Rayman: Origins will have some company.

*1 Around the time before R:O was coming out someone in Ubisoft said if it sold well they'd continue to work on Beyond: Good and Evil 2 instead of on it's own merit and fan appeal. This mind you coming after the same story, but about B:G&E (one) HD release a few years back.

l3o2828:THAT E3 Trailer THIS GAME IS GONNA BE AWESOME FIRST TRAILER IN YEARS THAT HAS MADE ME LAUGH, THIS IS SO MUCH LIKE NOLF, I LOVE IT!*sees news*Oh.............I need a hug.

{{Hugs}}

Myself I don't want to play the game on those screenshots but I did remember the game from the trailer and wish I could play that one instead.

I want the play The Trailer game too ;_;Damn you Activision! ;o;...thanks for the hug...there's only so many dissapointments one can take per week about this industry, funnily enough i have clocked over 200 this year alone.

I guess gamers really hard to please.Just because the art style has gone for a slightly more "realistic" approach does not mean the game will automatically be horrible. Insomiac hasn't let me down yet (although I haven't played Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One yet), so I'm still reasonably excited for the release. I loved the Resistance games even though they had the gritty, alternate reality 1950s feel to them. Count me still excited, I actually thought this game was dead seeing as there hadn't been word on it for over a year.

Six months ago, Insomniac realized Overstrike wasn't quite working. The core idea was sound - a four-player shooter where each co-op player has a unique role in combat and has a useful role in the story - but something was missing. Little did the developer realize the solution had been sitting in front of them the entire time: the Fuse substance was a story element, but it didn't play an active role in the form and function of playing Overstrike. When it became both the motivation for the characters as well as the source of their distinct powers, Overstrike became Fuse, and Fuse scrapped its cartoonish aesthetic for something a little more grounded.

If you didn't see our impressions already, we love it.

But why did the transition happen at all?

With Fuse's more photo-realistic visuals and altered story came new weapon forms and amplified violence. Enemies melt, explode into chunks, spray blood when they're cut, and wobble their backward heads after unsettling neck-break animations. "Me, personally? I love this s-t," says Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac Games. With Overstrike, "we couldn't unleash." And this isn't uniquely tied to gore.

The heroes of Fuse are barely heroes at all. They're all deeply flawed, and their group, Overstrike 9, is hardly a team at all. They're mercenaries who happen to organize together, and some have personal histories with each other. They're the grown-up version of a ragtag motley crew, each with disturbing (not just dark) pasts. Jacob Kimble, for instance, is a former LAPD cop - "former" because his black-and-white brand of justice once involved locking a child-killer in the trunk of a car and burning him alive. Dalton Brooks, on the other hand, used to work for the terrorists he's hunting down.

At the same time, Price says "We are not trying to be an ultra-realistic game, period. That is not our space. We love having games that are grounded, but we make big nods to sci-fi and more pulp influences." It's a balance of "a game that has humor but isn't taking itself completely seriously."

Internally, "It took a lot of us learning about who the audience is halfway through," Price says. Violence "has such a freeing effect, in terms of doing cool stuff with the weapons, compared to the more restricted, light-hearted T-rated game."

Fundamentally and philosophically, though, Fuse is Overstrike. There was no major change to the mechanics, and the Xbox 360 didn't pose problems for the traditionally PlayStation-exclusive team. Price is proud of his team's game and excited about the new direction. Justifiably so: Fuse is, on first impression, utterly fantastic.

Ignoring all the IGN hype dribble in the article, it seems like they just wanted to unleash a bit. I am glad that Price did say he isn't going to make the game ultra-realistic however, even if the art style has gone through a very specific change.

Okay, I'm not gonna lose my shit here. The only thing that's really changed is the art design, and I can live with that. (There still better be a big bald guy who's really a robot) but c'mon! I would've been okay with adding a bit more body armor, but they're all the same shade of fucking gray. Seriously, this is the only thing that's bothering me, the new character designs. They just look so...boring.

Why hello there, shall we commence with the buttkickary? WE SHALLPHA+PGltZyBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly8yNS5tZWRpYS50dW1ibHIuY29tL3R1bWJscl9scGJpYXVoaDhFMXFkNjBwZG8zXzI1MC5naWYiIGFsdD0iaW1hZ2UiLz48aW1nIHNyYz0iaHR0cDovLzI1Lm1lZGlhLnR1bWJsci5jb20vdHVtYmxyX2xwYmlhdWhoOEUxcWQ2MHBkbzRfMjUwLmdpZiIgYWx0PSJpbWFnZSIvPjxpbWcgc3JjPSJodHRwOi8vMjUubWVkaWEudHVtYmxyLmNvbS90dW1ibHJfbHBiaWF1aGg4RTFxZDYwcGRvNV8yNTAuZ2lmIiBhbHQ9ImltYWdlIi8+PGltZyBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly8yNS5tZWRpYS50dW1ibHIuY29tL3R1bWJscl9scGJpYXVoaDhFMXFkNjBwZG82X3IxXzI1MC5naWYiIGFsdD0iaW1hZ2UiLz48L3A+

Okay, I'm not gonna lose my shit here. The only thing that's really changed is the art design, and I can live with that. (There still better be a big bald guy who's really a robot) but c'mon! I would've been okay with adding a bit more body armor, but they're all the same shade of fucking gray. Seriously, this is the only thing that's bothering me, the new character designs. They just look so...boring.

Why hello there, shall we commence with the buttkickary? WE SHALLPHA+PGltZyBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly8yNS5tZWRpYS50dW1ibHIuY29tL3R1bWJscl9scGJpYXVoaDhFMXFkNjBwZG8zXzI1MC5naWYiIGFsdD0iaW1hZ2UiLz48aW1nIHNyYz0iaHR0cDovLzI1Lm1lZGlhLnR1bWJsci5jb20vdHVtYmxyX2xwYmlhdWhoOEUxcWQ2MHBkbzRfMjUwLmdpZiIgYWx0PSJpbWFnZSIvPjxpbWcgc3JjPSJodHRwOi8vMjUubWVkaWEudHVtYmxyLmNvbS90dW1ibHJfbHBiaWF1aGg4RTFxZDYwcGRvNV8yNTAuZ2lmIiBhbHQ9ImltYWdlIi8+PGltZyBzcmM9Imh0dHA6Ly8yNS5tZWRpYS50dW1ibHIuY29tL3R1bWJscl9scGJpYXVoaDhFMXFkNjBwZG82X3IxXzI1MC5naWYiIGFsdD0iaW1hZ2UiLz48L3A+

This is Insomniac. They made (in my opinion) the best shooter on the PS3, the best platformer on the PS1, and a damn good platformer-shooter hybrid on the PS2. If anyone can inject life into a stale genre, I think it's Insomniac. I have faith in them.